Projection systems for displaying motion pictures, television, video games, digital video discs (DVDs), VCR tapes, digital cable, and the like (collectively, “video”) generally include various electronic components that receive, process, and selectively channel light from one or more light sources (such as a light bulb) along one or more corresponding optical paths to a projection lens. The projection lens projects the channeled light onto a screen to form visible images, which can be viewed by human observers. Various versions of such systems are commonly used in movie theaters, corporations, and residential homes for allowing people to view motion pictures, television, video games, and presentations.
Projection systems also commonly include an audio source that transmits audio information relating to the projected images (a “soundtrack”) to speakers, which are typically hard-wired to the audio source. The speakers may be integral with or physically-separated from the projection system. The human observers can then hear the soundtrack as they view the video.
Many times, there are multiple soundtracks associated with a given video. For example, many DVDs include a standard soundtrack for the motion picture and a “director's narration” soundtrack, wherein the director of the motion picture narrates commentary over the standard soundtrack. Further, for example, many DVDs include soundtracks in multiple languages for the same video. Currently, when several people simultaneously watch the same video in the same room, they are constrained to listen to the same soundtrack. The inventors have recognized that it would be desirable to have a projection system that allows different human observers watching the same video to listen to different associated soundtracks simultaneously. For example, when a group of people watch a video at the same time, some people in the group may want to listen to the standard soundtrack, whereas others may want to listen to the “director's narration” soundtrack (or a different language).
Furthermore, it is common for the audio portion of many projection systems to include some version of “surround sound”, wherein the soundtrack is delivered from speakers located at different places around the room. The speakers used in most surround sound systems are hard-wired to the audio source of the projection system. Many times it is difficult to hard-wire remote speakers to the audio source in a convenient and aesthetically-pleasing way. Accordingly, the inventors have recognized that it would be desirable to have a projection system that facilities convenient, effective wireless installation of surround sound systems to be used with the projection system.
The disclosed invention was developed in view of these and other problems associated with video projection systems.